Marti Louw

Research FacultyUniversity of Pittsburgh USA

Marti Louw is research faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments, and a 2011 visiting scholar at the University of the West of England’s Science Communication Unit in Bristol . Her research practice focuses on how design and its related communication strategies can be used to create media-rich learning experiences that support participation and shared meaning-making with science. Current projects include establishing a regional participatory civic media and public engagement effort focused on Marcellus natural gas development and building a gigapixel-image based cyberlearning platform to foster participatory learning.

Louw has more than two decades of experience in science communication and the design of informal science learning experiences. Her production and design research work spans a range of educational media including broadcast television, museum exhibits, websites, and online learning communities. As a staff producer at the WGBH Science Unit, she produced several NOVA documentaries, web content and online games. While at the Chedd-Angier Production Company she produced numerous interactive multimedia projects for museums and science-technology centers. In 2003 she completed a M.A. Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University.